The Queen has joined 2,000 guests for a service at Westminster Abbey to mark 60 years since her Coronation.
Some of those who took part in the 1953 service were among the congregation.
Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Rev Justin Welby said the event honoured “60 years of commitment”.
The Queen was accompanied by more than 20 members of her family, including the Duke of Edinburgh, who pulled out of an engagement on Monday night because he was feeling unwell.
Several key items from the Coronation were placed in Westminster Abbey for the service.
They included the heavy, solid gold St Edward’s Crown, displayed on the High Altar – the first time it has left the Tower of London since 1953.
Beside it was the Ampulla, the gold, eagle-shaped bottle from which the holy oil was poured for the Queen’s anointing.
The Coronation Chair, one of the oldest pieces of English furniture still in use, was also on show.
‘Utter self-sacrifice’
The Queen and Prince Philip entered Westminster Abbey to the same music that greeted her in 1953.
Back then, aged 27, she was the 38th sovereign to be crowned in an abbey that has been the scene of such ceremonies since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066.
The Archbishop of Canterbury told those gathered in the abbey that the Coronation had been “an ordination, a setting aside of a person for service”.
Archbishop Welby said that during the ceremony the Queen knelt at the abbey’s altar and prayed.
“We do not know what was prayed. Her Majesty knelt at the beginning of a path of demanding devotion and utter self-sacrifice, a path she did not choose, yet to which she was called by God.
“Today we celebrate 60 years since that moment, 60 years of commitment.”
‘Duty done’
At the time the Coronation was a major television spectacle, with an estimated 27 million Britons tuning in.
The weather was dull and wet, but warm sunshine greeted those gathering in London for the anniversary on Tuesday.
The Archbishop said the Coronation had been “the first time the whole nation had watched anything as it happened”.
Source: BBC